Tutorial 3: Expanding on your first Project

About This Tutorial

In this tutorial you will expand on the previous project by adding a reverb plugin to the project
so that the wave file can be heard with some added reverb. This tutorial will give you some idea
of the versatility of LiveProfessor's audio routing capabilities. You should have completed the
first two Tutorials before continuing with this one.
Observation: As you are becoming more familiar with such things as the Audio routing panel,
the Sidebar and how to access the panel, as well as how to launch and exit LiveProfessor – in-
depth explanations of how to perform these functions will be excluded in the tutorials. If you
need to review these points – please review the previous tutorial.
Section A: Open the previous project
In this section of the tutorial, you will open the Tutorial 2 project and playback the wave file.
1. Launch LiveProfessor.
2. Go to Project and select Open project.
3. Select the Tutorial 2 project and click Open.
4. Select the Play/Stop button and you should again hear the acoustic-gtr1.wav file.
Observation: As before, if you should need to adjust the output level, you can expand the
Audio routing panel. From here you can adjust the output level via the Output gain knob. Also,
notice that the location of the wave file was saved with the project. As you will see in a future
tutorial, this is a very powerful feature of LiveProfessor.
5. Select the Play/Stop button to stop playback.
6. Section A is now completed.
Section B: Re-save the current project
Before you make any changes to this project, you should re-save the project under a different
filename. This is a good practice habit in the event you want to return to the previous project –
just in the event of an unforeseen error.
1. Go to Project.
2. Select Save as...
3. Enter a name for the project and select Save.
§ Name: Tutorial 3.
Observation: The current project is saved under the new filename.
4. Section B is now completed.
Section C: Adding a reverb
You will now add a reverb plugin to the project.
1. Go to Add unit.
2. Select the Abstract Chamber plugin.
Observation: As with the SWFP plugin, the selected plugin will now be displayed in the
LiveProfessor workspace. Notice however, that the newly added plugin is placed directly below
 Tutorial 3: Expanding on your first Project
the previous plugin. This is another important and wonderful feature set of LiveProfessor –
which you will learn about later.

3. Section C is now completed.

Section D: Configuring the Audio Output of SWFP
The SWFP plugin does not require inputs – as mentioned in the previous tutorial. However,
unlike the previous tutorial, you will need to alter the output routing for use with the reverb
plugin just added. This is what you will be doing next.
1. Expand the Audio routing panel of the SWFP plugin.
2. In the Outputs section of this panel, select 01 - Output 1 - 1 SoundMax HD Audio Output 01.
Observation: A pop-up menu is displayed listing the various inputs and outputs that are
available to you.
3. Go to Other unit's inputs.
Observation: A sub-menu is displayed – displaying any added plugins that have inputs that are
available for you to use – in this present case, it is the Abstract Chamber plugin.

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4. From Other unit's inputs, navigate first to Abstract Chamber – then to Abstract Chamber in
01.

Observation: Ask yourself what you are endeavoring to do here? You are taking the left output
of the SWFP plugin and routing it to the left input of the Abstract Chamber plugin. This
procedure is one that you will be performing a great deal when using LiveProfessor. I hope that
you do realize that the procedure that you use for the Abstract Chamber plugin – can, and will
be the same for any other plugin. Remember, the principle of routing outputs to inputs will be
the same.
5. Repeat Step 4 for the right output.
Observation: You should see the results of the updated audio routing – as shown in the
diagram below:

6. Collapse the Audio routing panel.

7. Select Save project.
Keyboard: Save – Ctrl+S.
8. Section D is now completed.
Observation: If you were to select the Play/Stop button at this point, do you think that you
would hear any audio output? If not – why not? Think about this for a moment? You have
routed the audio outputs of the SWFP plugin to the inputs of the Abstract Chamber plugin – but
where exactly are the outputs going to? At this point, though you have the outputs of the SWFP
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plugin going to the inputs of the reverb plugin – where are the reverb plugin outputs going to?
You will route these outputs in just a moment.
Lesson 1: The Plugin Interface – Resizing
A word needs to be said at this point about the plugin window interface. Some plugins – such as
the Abstract Chamber plugin – are rather narrow in height and therefore, do not display the
entire plugin Sidebar properly. LiveProfessor has the ability to temporarily resize the plugin
interface to compensate for this.

You can resize the plugin interface window by placing the mouse pointer near the bottom edge
of the plugin interface's windows – just until the pointer changes to the Windows resize
pointer. From here, it is a simple “left-click 'n drag” to adjust the interface size to display the
entire Sidebar. Here is a diagram showing a plugin window before and after re-sizing.

Observation: One of the ways of noticing if the plugin interface is too small or if it will require
re-sizing in order to show the entire Sidebar – is if the vertical scroll bar is displayed or not.
Note also however, that any plugin window can be resized – either horizontally, vertically, or
both – by using the same method noted above. However, the interface cannot be made smaller
than the actual size of the plugins interface. So, to continue with our tutorial...
Section E: Displaying the Audio Routing panel of the Abstract Chamber plugin
In this section of the tutorial you will resize the Audio routing panel by re-sizing the plugin
window and then configuring the audio outputs of the Abstract Chamber plugin.

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1. Expand the Audio routing panel.
2. Resize the plugin interface so that the entire Audio Routing panel is displayed:

Observation: Notice that in the Input section of the Abstract Chamber plugin Audio routing
panel, the inputs are listed as 01 - SWFP out L and 02 - SWFP out R, respectively. This is the
direct result of configuring the outputs of the SWFP plugin in Section D Step 4, above. Make
sure that you understand this point before continuing.
3. In the Outputs section of the Abstract Chamber plugin Audio routing panel, select 01 - Not
connected.
4. From the pop-up menu, select Output 1 - 1 SoundMax HD Audio 0 1.
5. Repeat Step 4 for the 02 - Not connected audio output.
Observation: If everything has gone correctly, you should now see the following:

6. Collapse the Audio routing panel.

7. Save the project.
8. Section E is now completed.
Observation: In the Abstract Chamber plugin, you now have working inputs sent from the SWFP
plugin and working outputs sent from the Abstract Chamber plugin. You should now be able
hear audio output – with some ‘verb added. You will verify this in a moment.
Section F: Playback of the audio wave file
In this section, you will playback the wave file – this time with some reverb added.
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1. Select the Play/Stop button on the SWFP plugin to hear the wave file.
Observation: You should now hear the playing of the acoustic-gtr1.wav file with some reverb
added.
2. Select the Play/Stop button on the SWFP plugin to stop the playback.
3. Section F is now completed.
Lesson 2: Turning off a plugin (Observational Only)
In this lesson you will learn about how to turn off – or disable – a plugin. In the upper right-
hand corner of a plugin window is the Control bar. An element of the Control bar is the Process
(On/Off) button.

To turn a plugin off and stop the processing, click the Process on/off button – the Power
Symbol. Selecting the Bypass button will cause the button to change colour – indicating that the
plugin will not process any audio or midi – thus saving DSP.

Section G: Turn off the Abstract Chamber plugin

In this section of the tutorial, you will turn off the Abstract Chamber plugin – so that you can
compare the dry signal with the wet signal.
1. On the Abstract Chamber plugin, select the plugin Process (On/Off) button to enable it.
2. Select the Play/Stop button on the SWFP plugin.
Observation: The wave file plays with the reverb disabled – so no wet signal is heard.
3. Toggle the Process (On/Off) button so that it is enabled – then disabled – to hear the
differences in the audio output.
Observation: You may need to select the Rewind button on the SWFP plugin to hear the wave
file again.
4. Make sure the Process (On/Off) button is disabled.
5. Select the Play/Stop button on the SWFP plugin to stop the playback.
6. Section G is now completed.
Observation: Take notice of the Status section and in particular, the DSP use: section. You
should see this section fluctuate as you enabled and disable the plugin.
Section H: Saving the Project and Closing LiveProfessor
You will now save this project and exit LiveProfessor.
1. Save project
2. Keyboard: Save – Ctrl+S
3. Exit LiveProfessor.

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4. Section H is now completed.
Summary
Here are the major points that you have covered here in this tutorial:
§ Opening a previous project.
§ Add a second plugin.
§ Configuring the Audio Inputs and Output.
§ Learning about some of more advanced routing capabilities of LiveProfessor – using the
Other unit's inputs and outputs options.
§ Learning about why it is a good idea to re-save your projects frequently.
§ Learning about how to resize a plugin's window and why you would want to do this.
§ Using the plugin's Process (On/Off) button.
Lesson 3: An Inserted Plugin
If you really think about this for a moment, the Abstract Chamber plugin is being used here as
an insert plugin for the SWFP plugin – as the reverb has been inserted into the channel –
between the inputs and the outputs.

In closing
One of the features that I really love about LiveProfessor is the intuitiveness of the design of the
application. This intuitiveness allows you to spend more time on the music – rather than on the
intricacies of the application.

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